


Shadows of the Past

by Izzu



Series: Light and Shadows of O-50 [10]
Category: Tokusatsu, ウルトラマンZ | Ultraman Z, ウルトラマンオーブ | Ultraman Orb
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-12
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:02:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28027476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Izzu/pseuds/Izzu
Summary: Set not long after the procurement of King Joe. Hebikura received an unexpected visit from a long time friend.
Relationships: Jugglus Juggler/Kurenai Gai
Series: Light and Shadows of O-50 [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1104027
Comments: 1
Kudos: 19





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Been wanting to write this for a while but I always can't quite figure out some certain things. That said, I might as well just head straight to doing it.

The day was strangely so peaceful. And somehow for some odd reason he was enjoying the moment.

This was so unlike him, Juggler thought to himself. This was so so unlike his usual self, he thought again as he angled his trimmer to slightly cut a stray branch off of his pet bonsai tree.

"This is very uncharacteristic for me, yeah?" he asked to no one in particular.

Juggler glanced up from his desk as he was greeted with an empty office. He sighed before wheeling himself towards the side windows. He glanced over towards the hangar as he watched the engineering crew diligently working on the maintenance of their three giant robots. Juggler's eyes set towards the new addition to their lineup. King Joe Custom. That giant robot was really such a beauty...

Initially he had been skeptical that the humans could actually salvage and reconstruct the King Joe after recovering the wreckage from the last battle. Yet, here they are. It was still so amazing how the crew could somehow manage to alter the Pedanian technology of King Joe and intergrated it into their own technology to allow them to take control of the alien robot. He snorted.

For some reason, he couldn't help being amazed at the ingenuity of the humans of this planet.

Juggler's attention then turned towards a commotion at the western corner of the hangar. He smiled. There they are. His 'kids'. Yoko had started another arm wrestling session with the rest of the crew. And as always, the lads were quite excited at the thought that they might be able to defeat her this time. When will those boys learn—!

Juggler frowned. Without warning he could sense an arrival of a powerful presence. And a _familiar_ one. It was something he didn't expect to—Juggler immediately shot up from his chair before running out of the office...

xxx

Bako chuckled aloud as Yoko defeated yet another opponent without much effort. He was about to resume analysing the technical data that had been piling on his desk before noticing the presence of a _young man_ he never met before. He got up and walked towards the man who seemed to has lost his way around.

"Oh hey there, lad. You're not supposed to be here," he started to say. The young man turned his attention towards him before taking off his hat. "Did you by any chance got lost or something? This area wasn't supposed to be freely accessable to the public."

The young man just shrugged at him. "Oh no... I meant to come here actually. I was wondering if I could find—what's happening over there? Is there something fun—"

"Hey please, you can't just—!"

At that moment, Captain Hebikura rushed over towards them before grabbing the young man's arm.

"Ah! Hebi-chan! I was about to call you. This young man has been wandering around—"

Hebikura hastily nodded his head before placing a hand over the young man's mouth. Bako frowned.

"Hebi-chan? By any chance, did you know this kid?"

"Hebi—?" exclaimed the young man before the captain clamped his mouth even tighter. The man laughed nervously.

"Haha... err, yeah. This guy was a friend. It seemed that he decided to pay a visit here to see what kind of workplace I'm in without _warning_ me first." Hebi gave a stern glare at the young man. "So umm... yeah, sorry for the trouble!" he said again before dragging the other man away.

Bako continued eyeing the two as Yuka walked over to check on him.

"Who was that? Why's the captain dragging him away?"

The old man just shrugged. "He said it's just an old friend. What a peculiar fellow, that one."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For a while tbh I've been mulling over the idea of what might happen if Gai was to check in on him so I thought I might as well write it out. Not to mention there was a certain observation that I wanted to highlight in reference to Juggy's character.


	2. Chapter 2

Yoko excused herself as she defeated Haruki yet again in arm wrestling. As soon as she stepped away from the table the boys immediately crowded around Haruki to offer him some words of comfort. It was at that time she saw Yuka talking to Bako excitedly about something.

"Hey!", she exclaimed, before nudging Yuka in the arm. "What's the fuss? Did something happen earlier?"

Yuka just shrugged. "Nothing. Just that someone came to see the Captain."

Bako snorted. "No, there's more to it than that. The lad apparently had been wandering around here aimless. And before I could ask how he managed to come here, Hebi-chan came rushing over and whisk his friend away."

"...it looked like he hasn't been expecting the sudden visit."

"Who you guys been talking about?" asked Haruki as he walked over to their side.

Yuka smiled mischievously. "How about we check it out?"

xxx

Juggler had just barely dragged the man towards the main office before finding his chance to kick Gai on the knee. Safe to say that he wasn't exactly too thrilled to see his old friend coming unannounced to his current workplace.

"Are you nuts?" he hissed at the man. "You can't just barge over here like some dumb idiot without warning! This place is supposed to be a secret military installation—not some friend's apartment you can just come over to visit like there's no problem—!"

Gai snorted without thinking. "Aha... I just realised. But I've been wanting to see what this place was like after hearing that you're _working_ here from Riku. I can't help it if I got curious about you, can I?"

Juggler started pressing on the the side of his head as a migraine started forrming. Gosh! He should've made it a point before to tell that Riku kid to not inform Gai about this recent venture of his. Because he _knew_ that this idiot would do something like this. Of course! Why didn't he thought about this?

Gai cocked his head at him. "By the way, Juggler... earlier, why did the old man call you Hebi? That's not even—" Immediately Juggler's hand flew towards Gai's mouth.

"Shush!" Juggler glared at him again. "Don't call me _that_ here! Over here, my name is Hebikura Shota. **Captain** Hebikura Shota. If you HAVE to be here right now, you better refer to me by that name instead!"

"But why Hebi—!" exclaimed Gai again just as Juggler pull his hand away. He hastily placed a finger to shut him up.

Juggler stepped away as Gai went quiet before rolling his eyes at his old _friend_. He started slapping the sides of his arms and his uniform to brush off the crease that had formed to try making himself look much more presentable.

"Just because. Also because the others and my kids are not aware of my real identity currently and I wanted it to stay that way. _For now_." He gave Gai a dirty look. "To be frank, I'm rather proud of my naming sense. Unlike _someone_ , I actually made an _effort_ to think up a name to blend myself amongst the humans that actually reflected my true identity proper. Instead of just slapping a surname to my real name and be done with it."

He received another look from Gai as Juggler giggled.

"So now that you've seen me, why don't you just—" Juggler didn't manage to finish that line as Haruki, Yoko and Yuka suddenly chose that particular time to come back to the office together. 

xxx

"Captain!" greeted the trio as Juggler waved it off.

"What are you guys fussing about here suddenly?"

"We heard that your friend had come to see you and we're curious to get to know him!"

Yoko suddenly grabbed Gai's arm. "Are you a strong person? Wanna have a match with me?"

"No, I don't think you need to bother with—" Juggler started to say before Haruki grabbed Gai's other arm.

"Rather than a match, how about a spar?" Haruki exclaimed.

To which both Haruki and Yoko chirped about going to the gym and whisked Gai away. Juggler shook his head before turning towards Yuka.

"This is your plan, isn't it? Did Yoko tried to coax you to spar with her again?" he asked as Yuka grabbed his arm tightly.

"This looked interesting, right? Let's go and see~~~!"


	3. Chapter 3

Juggler nudged Yoko aside the moment they reached the small gym before standing between them and Gai. He smirked slightly. "It's not worth it to fight with this person, Yoko. It wouldn't make an interesting battle, much less an exercise. Compared to my old friend here, wouldn't training with Haruki again be the better idea?"

He turned towards Haruki before snorting. "You're still pretty clumsy even on Windom. Don't you think you needed a lot more training to do, Haruki- _chan?_ At the rate you're going right now, you can't even _dream_ on piloting King Joe Custom."

Haruki smiled nervously at him before slowly nodding his head in defeat. "Y-yes... Captain."

Juggler grinned before stepping towards the center of the room. "Even then, since we're already here... we might as well show off a bit to the kids, don't you think so, Gai?"

Gai laughed loudly. "Sure. But since it's been a while since we saw each other, some lessons in swordfighting? I haven't had a serious fight lately and I felt my skills had been a bit rusty..."

Juggler rolled his eyes at his old friend. "Seriously? You gotta be kidding me," he started to say before grabbing a set of wooden swords from a storage cabinet nearby. He threw one of them towards Gai as the man caught it deftly.

"How many times do I need to tell you that just having that _fancy sword_ with you wouldn't mean anything much if your skills wasn’t fully up to it? But if we want to do this you better be serious and not act like you did back in Suzark, you hear me?"

Gai chuckled again as he nodded. "Of course, my dear old _mentor_."

Juggler rolled his eyes again at Gai before turning towards Haruki and Yoko. "Pay attention. Especially _you_ , Haruki. While you don't usually need this skill while piloting the giant robots during battles, it might still be useful to you someday."

"Osu!" exclaimed Haruki in response.

Juggler turned his attention back towards Gai before taking the initial pose for his Serpentine Blade...

"Let's begin the lesson," he said before they begin.

xxx

Gai took a seat on a nearby bench as he silently observed the young members of Juggler's STORAGE team sparring with each other at the centre of the gym. Haruki and Yoko were practicing Judo with each other while Juggler was teaching the younger one named Yuka.

It was a strange sight for him to see... yet it wasn’t really out of place. It made him reminisced the early days of him and Juggler back in O-50 when they used to be training together in preparation for the climb towards the Warrior's Peak.

That had been so long ago and he never thought he'd see this again after so much time has passed, especially considering everything that have happened between him and Juggler. And somehow... he couldn't help feeling happy for his friend.

Of the three kids, it was clear that the one called Yoko was the more skilled... followed by the boy named Haruki, and lastly, Yuka. The youngest one seemed the most unskilled in battle, but he felt as if push come to shove... even that kid could put up a decent fight.

That boy Haruki though, there was something about the kid that made him felt drawn towards wanting to know the kid more. Was that the one Riku had told him who has been bonded with Z? He couldn't help feeling a sense of nostalgia in the kid somehow. It made him think about the early days of him getting used to being Orb. And then meeting Asuka as he slowly learning his ways to being a proper—!

Gai stopped himself from that thought as he took another look at Juggler's human team members. Was it a coincidence? For Juggler to be watching over yet another young Ultraman who reminded so much of himself when he had been of a similar age? And the girls... was it a coincidence as well that the two had the similar presence as—

— _Ricca and Micott!_

Gai turned his attention towards Juggler, and it struck him that he only started noticing it now. Juggler... had a soft gaze towards the girls, especially the youngest one. And when it comes to Haruki, he was stern and blunt in pointing out the kid's mistakes and scolding him to get better.

_Just like how his friend used to be when Juggler and him had been travelling together._

It reminded Gai of the many memories in Kanon, and he couldn't help being a bit sad.

xxx

"Jug—Hebikura... _san_ , everything's alright with you, isn't it?"

Juggler gave him a silent look before checking to see if his 'kids' had noticed his slight blunder. They were back at the STORAGE office and the trio had been minding their own businesses at their desks. Yoko had been pestering Haruki for a few more rounds of arm-wrestling while Yuka were deep in concentration doing her research at her computer.

Juggler let out a sigh of relief before giving Gai an annoyed glare. "What're you talking about?"

Gai let out a weak smile at his friend. He didn't really want to ask Juggler about his earlier observation about the team members. But after returning to the office, he couldn't keep it in any longer.

He sighed before slowly taking out a _small pot_ that Juggler had hurriedly hid under the desk.

"Old friend... do you want to talk about this?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit of side note. Early on, I've been seeing how some people comparing Haruki to Gai in referrence to their connection to Juggy. And following that, was the comparison to the rest of SSP gang in relation to Yoko and Yuka (also Bako, in a sense). Though to be honest, I'm seeing more similarities with the people Juggy and Gai have met from Kanon.
> 
> And seeing the kind of backstory Juggy had and seeing the team he had currently, I would've wondered what Gai would think if he had met the team. Or this is just me wanting to write more Juggy-centric stories. It's been a while anyway XD


End file.
